Meet Gary.
attaché founder & principal consultant 

Dr. Gary Cole has spent more than three decades on the inside of some of the country's most demanding fundraising environments, leading development operations generating $100 million or more annually, advising on campaigns reaching $500 million, and guiding organizations through every stage of growth, struggle, and strategic transformation.

 

He has worked alongside CEOs & Executive Directors who were brilliant at their mission and overwhelmed by their development programs. He has sat in board meetings where fundraising felt like an obligation no one wanted to name. He has seen organizations raise their fundraising targets while decreasing investment in fundraising staff development. He has watched organizations plateau at the same revenue level for years, not because the need wasn't real, but because the strategy, the systems, and the internal culture around revenue growth were never built correctly.

 

He established The Philanthropic Advisory™ because that work, the strategic, hands-on, we-will-figure-this-out-together kind of work, is what he does best. His belief that investment in staff development and a comprehensive assessment of fundraising infrastructure, programs, and capacity both undergird a sound Philanthropic strategy and mitigate burnout, turnover, and organizational cultures that impede philanthropic success. 

 

As part of his consulting work through the Elm Place Collaborative, Gary sought to identify how leveraging AI alongside real-world experience might create new opportunities to serve nonprofit organizations that are outpriced and overlooked by traditional consultancies. He is the founder of attaché and designed the Donor Insights Hub to provide a simple, affordable, and powerful tool to assist nonprofit leaders and fundraisers in answering the number #1 question they have as it relates to individual fundraising: whom should I call today?